Superleague netball player Joanne Walker explains why netball is an
intense sport that is growing in popularity, despite what some might think

Apparently, netball is a "ridiculous sport … sissy basketball, seemingly designed for dainty flamingos who don’t want to break a nail." That's according to fellow Telegraph writer Sally Peck, who penned her opinionafter it was revealed that nearly half of teenage girls are inactive.

Sally's point was that the old faithful fallback for girls – netball – came 41st on a list of what sports teenage girls would rather play. Schools need to modernise PE lessons to get girls interested in sport, and encourage them to be active, she said. In other words, we need to offer our young girls far more than netball if we're to help cure Britain of its obesity crisis, she said.

Her article certainly set social media networks alight – and with 15,000 shares and counting – I’m pleased to be able to give my views on this, on behalf of a sport that is becoming ever more popular in this country, growing almost a third since 2010. It’s hard to imagine that rate of growth from a sport which apparently most girls hate.

From someone who spends a lot of time coaching the next generation of elite netballers, I can categorically confirm that most don’t hate it. Yes, of course it isn’t for everyone. Yes, there are many excellent other sports that girls and women can play. And, yes, I agree that we need to do more to make sure PE lessons are engaging and captivate girls to want to play more sport – any sport – in the future.

The challenge for schools is that many do not have the resources to offer as many different sports as they would like. It's true that many young women find PE lessons dull. That needs to change, but I don’t believe it takes a huge amount to do that.

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Why I love netball

One of the reasons I took up netball, and am so passionate about it now, is because the PE teacher at my school in Preston was also passionate about it. She gave me the drive to take it up and spend many hours practising to be as good as I could be. We need more PE teachers like that in this country but we can’t expect them to be able to specialise in all sports to cater for every child’s demand.

Instead, what PE must be about is promoting a passion for sport in general, for wanting to take part, to compete and to win. And, perhaps most importantly, to give young women the confidence to go out and play sport rather than sit at home and be inactive. To link any sport to the reason why British girls are fatis insensitive and irresponsible.

Besides, whatever you think or have experienced of netball in the school playground, it's an entirely different ball game at elite level. It is an intense sport – strategic, fast moving and hugely competitive, as any of the tens of thousands who have packed into see one of the Super League games in the past few months will agree. It’s nominally non-contact yet if you see the bruises me and my Yorkshire Jet team-mates have after matches, or the amount of strapping tape used on players by the end of the season, you would question that description.

Just watch the Commonwealth Games, where the best netballers in the world will compete in Glasgow to a worldwide audience. Or come and see a Yorkshire Jets game next season in Leeds, so we can show that it’s definitely not a sport you could categorise as "sissy basketball".

Hundreds of girls from schools across Yorkshire come and see every one of the games and we witness their excitement and passion for the sport that is one of the best attended women’s sports in the UK. For young girls to stay in sport they need role models. Boys pretend to be Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard on the school field, girls need their own sporting heroes to aspire to. Netball gives them that.

Take it from me, there are no dainty flamingos and no unbroken nails in a sport that we should be proud is taught in so many schools and enjoyed at so many levels by so many women.

Joanne Walker, 24, is one of England and Wales’ leading netballers. A former England international, she plays as Goal Shooter for the Yorkshire Jets, one of only eight teams in the Netball Superleague. She also coaches aspiring netball players of all ages, ability and experience across Yorkshire.